Halloween, an episode from season 2 of The Office, differs from most other Halloween and horror-themed shows I have reviewed and will review this October, in that there's nothing supernatural going on here. The episode's simply set on October 31, and people wear costumes to the office. Mostly, though, this episode is about Michael having to fire someone due to budget cuts. One may ask why? Why not make two separate episodes, one about the firing and one about the Halloween party? Both would make valid stories. Maybe the two ideas were combined because unemployment is scary, scarier than any vampire or gremlin. Or maybe it was just supposed to be funny because Michael chose a completely inappropriate day to let someone go. Halloween is supposed to be fun. Although we don't find out until the later episode Christmas Party, the money they saved from the firing was pretty much needless, it was thrown away as a Christmas bonus to Michael himself. Talk about social injustice.
There are numerous laughs in this episode. Some are related to the firing (Michael, naively, thinks he can somehow do this without losing a "friend") and some to the costumes. Michael shows a bit of unintentional racial insensitivity, thinking one employee's Dorothy costume doesn't work because she's of East Indian descent. That's Michael Scott for you.
Happy Halloween.
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